Discretion Aforethought Poem by Wemdy Adams

As my dear mother used to say
While we together used to play
With each other, ears a-flapping
While the grown-ups' tongues were wagging:
'Look around you, who can hear?
Are there people that you fear?
Stay and listen if you must,
But don't break the speaker's trust.
If by chance you disagree,
Speak without base calumny.'
So she taught us circumspection,
How to rise above contention,
To convert with reasoned logick
The most rabid Vitriolic.